A Day in the Life of Monmouth Regional High School

There's nothing homogeneous about the school's 1,100-strong student body. And that seems to be the way everyone likes it.

It's just before 7 a.m. as a gaggle of groggy Monmouth Regional High School students slowly gathers at a bus stop on Broad and White streets in Eatontown.
It may be just a handful of days before the beginning of spring, but the cold is biting and the gray sky above obfuscates the morning sun and casts a pallor over everything below, even the mood here this morning.
Half a dozen people are at this bus stop. More arrive from all points of the compass. Salutations are exchanged, but conversation is thin.
At 7:01, the bus arrives -- right on time. The gaggle files in. No one says a word as they choose their spots among two rows of brown, high-backed seats.
Maybe it's as simple as the heat pumping through the bus, but by the next of six stops on Bus Route 30, the decibel level rises. Full-fledged conversations take place, and more are added to the din with each stop along the 11-minute route to school.
Today's ride is much the same as it's been for every one of the 16 years he's been driving it, says bus driver Erik Hove, 43, of Manalapan.
"Nothing has changed," he says. "The seats just got taller."
Once inside school, students mill about or cluster in small groups, clotting the main hallway arteries a little here and a little there. Homeroom won't start for almost 20 minutes, so they have a kind of reprieve before their day begins.

'All mixed up'

There's nothing homogeneous about the 1,100-strong Monmouth Regional student body. And that seems to be the way everyone likes it.
"It's not like everyone is the same," says Ondrea McKay, a 17-year-old junior from Tinton Falls. "There are many different groups, ethnic and religion-wise, and that's more like what the world is about. You learn to get along with different people."
Pick any lunch period, she says, to see Monmouth's diverse population meld.
"It's not like all the athletes sit at one table, another group all sit at another table," Ondrea says. "At Monmouth, it's all mixed up."
"Everyone gets along," says Barry Bostick, a 17-year-old senior from Eatontown. "Kids respect others' differences ... and respect is what's important."

Good morning Monmouth

Through two doors and down a hallway past the Media Center, the student news crew is preparing the set for the morning newscast. Two stage lights, a video camera and a metal stool form a make-shift studio in the hall outside the school's auditorium.
That's about all you need for a four-minute newscast, says audio/visual teacher Dave Ahlers.
There's a hard-core crew of five students who regularly produce the newscast piped into every classroom in the school during homeroom each morning, he says.
M.R. News is anchored by senior Nicole Barca, 17, of Eatontown.
"She is very comfortable in front of the camera," Ahlers says. "And if she's not around for some reason, people ask for her. She is the face of M.R. News."
Nicole, who wears a T-shirt that reads, "I like dorks," reads a dozen items from a script that covers club meeting times, testing make-up dates and upcoming schoolwide events. The script is provided by the school administration, Ahlers says.
Shortly after Nicole signs off, a bell rings signaling a swarm of students to fill the halls -- all scrambling to the first of eight 41-minute classes they'll have today.

Let it snow

While Monmouth students settle into their classes, the school administration is contemplating an early dismissal as the sky outside threatens to dump 3 to 6 inches of snow before the day is through.
But letting students go home early isn't as easy as it sounds, says school Superintendent Patrick R. Collum.
Buses must be available. School officials from Monmouth's two sending districts -- Tinton Falls and Eatontown -- as well as Fort Monmouth must be notified. And the school's kitchen crew has to be told to stop making the 300-500 lunches served here each day, Collum says.
If it happens at all, Collum says he will make the decision between 10 a.m. and noon. That's more than two hours from now, and the snow already has begun to coat the ground outside.
But Jim Tierney, the school's head of maintenance, says he is not worried about the approaching snowstorm. There simply won't be one, he says.
"We are not plowing today," says Tierney, 46, of Tinton Falls. "It's just going to rain."
But just in case, Tierney says jokingly, his department is prepared to salt and plow the grounds of the 150,000-square-foot school.
Depending on the amount of snow, that could take anywhere from three to 10 hours, which goes a long way toward explaining why he's hoping for rain, he says.

Bearers of bad news

While Robin Liebenberg's Gifted-and-Talented class discusses the potential harm caused by an increasingly cynical news media, Bob Perry is delivering some bad news of his own.
Perry, 55, of Jackson, is one of six hall monitors at Monmouth. He works mainly in the school's 500 wing. Much as any other day, he's pulling out of classes kids with whom the administration would like to speak.
"I try to keep it light, you know, because these aren't bad kids," he says.
By 10 a.m. there's more than an inch of snow on the ground. Shortly after 11 a.m. the announcement comes that all after-school activities today will be canceled.
Students spend the rest of the school day talking what could have been - team practices, rehearsals for the upcoming school production of "Footloose." But in the end, as the snow and sleet mix continue to fall, students are looking to the future -- and maybe a snow day on Friday.
At 2:16 p.m., the bell rings, signaling the end of the official school day.
But as the groups of students milling about in the area outside the media center attest, not everyone leaves Monmouth at the same time.
To save on transportation costs, the high school has two end-of-the-school-day runs. The first group leaves at 2:16 p.m. Students in the second run don't board a bus home until 2:35 p.m.
"It's not that bad," says 15-year-old Rachel Ben-Zvy who's milling around the area, a bunch of birthday balloons in her hand. "You get to hang out with your friends and unwind a little bit."
Today is her birthday, though, and the freshman from Eatontown is a little eager to get home.
"The balloons were delivered to me during my third period class, and I've been walking around with them all day," she laughs. "It's just good to be going home soon.
By 3 p.m., the halls of the school are empty -- except for Megan Welsh and Jeff Pitcher.
The 17-year-old seniors from Eatontown spend the second half of their day at schools run by the Monmouth County Vocational School District -- Megan at the Middletown location where she's studying nursing and Jeff at Communications High School in Wall where he's studying graphic arts.
Their buses return them to Monmouth after the regular buses leave, so it's a matter of waiting for the late buses to start their runs, usually sometime after 3 p.m.
"It's not that bad," says Megan, looking out the windows to the falling snow outside. "As long as you have someone to talk to, it's not that bad."